3 Closed class words
You’ve met some of the closed class words before. In Week 3, you were introduced to the auxiliary verbs – be, have and do – which help to make multiword verbs (they were waiting, we have seen, it doesn’t matter). You also considered modal auxiliary verbs (can, must, should, might etc), which are also a closed class. These words ‘help’ other verbs and can show that an action or process is (or is not) allowed (you mustn’t go there!), advisable (he should wear a warm coat), likely (it might rain later) or possible (they can’t swim).